Plastic Draws Short Straw in Battle with Paper

Plastic straws have lost the battle and they've been banished from the Knox College campus. As first reported by the Knox College Office of Sustainability on the office's Facebook page on April 25, paper drinking straws have replaced plastic in all of Knox's Dining Services facilities.

The move — which makes Knox the third college in the nation to ban plastic straws — was initiated by a request from the Student Senate Sustainability Committee to Bon Appetit, which manages Dining Services on campus.

News media coverage has included:

• NPR's food science blog The Salt, and more than 80 NPR affiliates: "The anti-straw movement comes amid growing recognition of the environmental toll of single-use plastics..."
• WGIL Radio in Galesburg: "...Knox becomes third US college to ditch plastic straws..."
• WEEK/WHOI TV in Peoria: "...Knox is among the first wave of U.S. higher education institutions to drop plastic and switch to paper [straws]..."
• National announcement by Bon Appetit: "Although the paper straws do cost more than plastic, the total cost is far outweighed by the savings to the environment," said Mark Daniels, Bon Appétit's acting General Manager at Knox College..."
• Peoria Journal Star: "...the main driver of the paper-for-plastic switch is Knox student Irene Stephenson, who chairs the student senate sustainability committee..."

Above, students in a history course use plastic "straws" to re-enact ancient Greek warfare. Below, three areas on campus where paper straws will not be used: underground drainage, holding the tarp for the baseball field, and in the science lab...